AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975
PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 10 C-1. 14/1/24 Choir of the Papua New Guinea Forestry College. PNG FOREST EDUCATION Contributors Robyn Borough, Chris Borough, Phil Pope. Editor R B McCarthy1
1 District Forester Bulolo Wau 1973/74.
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FOOTNOTE 10/1/2024 Chris Borough Robyn says Phil's account of the FORKOL Choir covers it very well and has nothing to add. A mention of its importance to PNG and other students might be worthwhile. I was doing some work on Kolombangara in the Solomon Is. and Robyn was with me. We decided to go to the local Club and have a drink with locals. Behind the bar was a chap who looked exactly like Ed Doliano (cartography student). On querying his ID it turned out he was Ed Doliano's brother. He said that an enlarged copy of the cover of the record took pride of place in his village! We were both mindboggled but there you are. I also was amazed when I attended a meeting in Fiji and Leonard Maenu’u was there as OIC the Dept. Forestry. We both saw each other at an outdoor reception in Nadi and immediately started to sing Gaudeamus Igitur - one of the songs (in Latin) that I had known from Uni days and Leonard had learned while singing with the FORKOL choir. It was easy for me as I heard every rehearsal of the FORKOL choir from our house opposite the College and hence I got to know Gaudeamus perfectly. Needless to say other conference attendees were a bit astounded but no-one said a word.
I was a Botanist by Education and a secondary school teacher by profession. Towards the end of 1969, I saw a position for an Ecologist with the Forestry Department of PNG, advertised in the Melbourne Age. I decided to apply, and, to my surprise, I was successful at interview. I resigned from the Victorian Education Department to take effect at the end of January. I was no forester, but the job appeared to offer a chance to visit a new part of the world and to get to know another set of plants about which I knew nothing. I duly arrived in Lae at the end of January 1970, only to be told that my employer was away on annual leave and would not be able to brief me about my new appointment. It was suggested that I might look around Lae for a while, which I did, but with no clear advice about when I could meet my new employer, the situation seemed somewhat unsatisfactory. There was, however, a lecturing vacancy at the Forestry College in Bulolo that I might be interested in, and the Department arranged a flight for me to Bulolo to investigate. I was met at the Bulolo airport by someone from the Forestry College and was interviewed by Robin Angus, its Principal. In the event, I decided to take up the offer of a lectureship at the college – better the devil you knew. I was still called an ecologist however and my duties at the college over the next two years were varied but enjoyable. In leaving Melbourne, I had severed my ties with an up-and-coming mixed choir, The Melbourne Chorale, a group beginning to forge a name for itself in Victoria, but I did not want my singing career to be cut short quite so soon. To that end, I decided to form a choir from among the students of the college, having already experienced their ability at part-singing at informal college get-togethers. These young men made a lovely sound when they sang harmony – it seemed to come naturally to them. Without access to written music, I used to write it out in 4 parts from memory from works I had sung in the Chorale in Melbourne, or from listening to records. Then , during rehearsals, without piano, I would teach them the parts by ear. We performed at various college functions. What a boon it was when Chris and Robyn Borough arrived in Bulolo. Robyn had a lovely high true soprano voice and she agreed to sing lead in a couple of Spirituals which showed off her voice beautifully and blended well with the mellow sounds of the 4-part male accompaniment – “Mary had a Baby’ and “Oh Lemuel”.
The Choir. BACK: Logo Tufeao, Reisima Sepa, Leonard Maenu’u, Avae Hailai, Sam Kulu, Herson Anson, Ulaiasi Tuikoro, Robyn Borough, Jiko Raiwali, Yara Maino, Perenise Tafili. FRONT: Andrew Tagamasu, Mathias Manau, Brogan Zanecky, Richard Teona, Alu Imani, Clements Tabul, Maso Salaiau. INSET: Phil Pope.
An annual Choral competition was being held in Mt Hagen in mid 1971. Choirs from schools and churches throughout Papua and New Guinea would be in attendance. The choir agreed to go, and having prepared the necessary songs, we travelledthrough the night by bus, Rampier (left) driving (he of the tea shirt, long trousers and bare feet), to arrive in Mt Hagen late on Saturday morning. The competition was in the evening so there was a bit of an anxious wait during the afternoon. We had a warm-up before competing and came second in one of the classes. There was some superb singing on the night but as soon as it was over, we all piled back into the college bus and Rampier drove us home, arriving in Bulolo early on Sunday morning. Since many of the PNG choirs had made records, we decided to cut a 7inch disc of a few of our better songs, featuring Robyn Borough, and in November, drove to Lae to put the music on record. Herman Kloeti took the photo below, taken on the lawn between the administrative wing and the lecture rooms of the college, to be used on the cover of the record. We heard no more from the recording company but in the meantime, I had been taking orders from those people who wanted a copy.
Cover photo for the record. BACK: Perenise Tafili, Yara Maino, Sam Kulu. MIDDLE: Robyn Borough, Logo Tufeao, Andrew Tagamasu, Reisima Sepa, Clements Tabul, Ulaiasi Tuikoro, Jiko Raiwali, Leonard Maenu’u FRONT: Richard Teona, Alu Imani, Herson Anson, Avae Hailai, Mathia Manau, Brogan Zanecky, Maso, Salaiau.
Exams came and went, and the college year wound up. The Boroughs and I were leaving PNG. I had decided that I would not renew my two-year contract. The last week or so was occupied in crating up our belongings and making arrangements for them to be shipped to Australia. We were flying out in January and the records still had not arrived. I can remember walking through the college building saying goodbye to students and staff an hour or two before we were to be taken to the Bulolo airport, when this box arrived, and, sure enough, it contained the records. I had to then rush around and distribute them according to the orders and arrange to give change when someone paid more than the record cost. The last thing I wanted to think about then was change. I seem to remember a few spare records which I could not be bothered trying to sort out and I left them at the college. Some years later, I was talking to a Papua New Guinea public servant who was in Canberra on a work trip and he told me that the record was still on sale in Lae.